Delaware; or, The Ruined Family. Vol. 1James, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
General
Delaware; or, The Ruined Family. Vol. 1
James, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
Fiction
It is quite wonderful what a fund of conversation one has with one's
self, when one is left alone for a few minutes, after an hour or two
of that excitement, during which the mind at one moment has enough to
do in calculating what the body is to do the next. This conversation
is sometimes pleasant of course, and sometimes severe, according to
the circumstances of the case, and character of the person, or rather
of the persons concerned. I hold the plural to be the right number in
speaking of such conversation; for therein, more or less, the two
spirits which Araspus, and every other man felt and feels in his own
bosom, hold commune with each other; and--being two twin brothers,
who, though good and evil in their several natures, have still a bond
of kindred sympathy between them--although they wrangle and oppose
each other in the busy strife of the world, yet, when they thus calmly
meet in solitude and silence, to talk together over the past, there is
a strain of melancholy affection mingles with their intercourse, which
renders it always pleasing, though sometimes sad. The good spirit--for
it is his moment of power--rebukes his evil brother gently for every
abuse of his sway; and the evil one bows contrite, or playfully evades
the charge.
All this, however, has very little to do with Henry Burrel, (some
persons may think,) who, in companionship with a hurt lad, half
peasant half sailor, was slowly winding onward, in a creaking
post-chaise, towards the small town of Emberton. Nevertheless,
notwithstanding that fact--and whether any one understands some of the
foregoing sentences or not, which probably they will not do without
reading them over twice--Nevertheless, Henry Burrel's thoughts were
suffered to flow, hardly interrupted--for the young sailor was still
in a dozy, half lethargic state--and the two spirits, though the good
one could scarcely be said to have lost its ascendency during the
hours lately passed, had full leisure for conversation in his bosom.
"I must take care what I am about," thought Burrel, as soon as he had
fallen back in the chaise, after a few kindly words to his poor
companion, which remained half unanswered; "I must take care what I am
about," and it may hardly be necessary to inform the reader, that he
was thinking of Blanche Delaware. "And yet," he continued the next
moment, half smiling, "why should I take care?--whom have I to care
for but myself?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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